Page 95 of Loving You

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“That’s what he always says,” I said with a blank look. Then I giggled when she did. “Hey, so, is this the part where we hug it out?”

Mom nodded. “I suppose so, and I think I’d like that very much if you’re willing.”

“I am.” I stood, and so did she.

Then, for the first time in what felt like–okay, not justfeltlike, but actuallywas–several years, we hugged long and hard, neither of us trying to brush the other off and go on our own way.

And if that wasn’t the cherry on top of what had been a life-changing year so far, I didn’t know what was.

30

ERIC

When I held up the blindfold, April’s grin had that sexy cant to it that sent heat into my blood.

“You know, you don’t need to pretend you have a surprise for me to get me into a blindfold. Sensory deprivation is supposed to…heightenother sensations, so I’m definitely down to experiment with this.”

“Noted.”

She squeezed my hands as I led her to the basement door. When I opened it and she took in the darkened staircase, her grin faded. “Wait. Are you taking me into a basement? I was hoping for sex. Is creepy basement sex a new thing you wanna try?”

I chuckled under my breath because of course I did. No, I wasn’t some carefree, completely different version of myself now that April was in my life, but I laughed a whole hell of a lot more than I ever had before she came into it.

Or, maybe I should say before she became an essential part of it. Until that point, I’d been able to ignore her sharp wit and snarky comments by chalking them up to her being obnoxious and not my type.

Little had I known she’s exactly my fucking type, and it wasn’t categorical, it was specific. April Carrigan was my one and only type.

I turned her around and put the blindfold over her eyes, then smoothed my free hand down her back and over the curve of her perfect ass. “That was not my plan, no. But if you want to, after I give you the present in the basement, I’ll blindfold you again and we can test that sensory deprivation theory.”

She snickered. “Ooh, I like presents. It’s not a basement-sized planner, is it?”

“April.”

“Sorry, okay. Sounds great. I’ll just need to make it down these stairs without falling to my untimely death.”

Shaking my head even though she couldn’t see it, I turned and braced myself on her hips. She stood on the stair above me, one hand on the railing, one rising to my shoulder.

“You think I’d let anything happen to you?” I asked, my thumbs arcing over the material of the soft leggings she wore.

Those plush lips pulled into a smirk. “No. I don’t. But there is a tiny part of me that’s realizing I never even knew you had a basement in this house, so I’m a little worried maybe you’ve been hiding a creepy doll collection from me all this time. Just FYI, that is one bit of kink I know I won’t be into, no matter how much I love you.”

A laugh tripped out of me, and I indulged in pulling her into a hug. “My god, woman, you are ridiculous.”

I felt her smiling into my neck as she laughed with me. “I am, but you like it.”

With a peck to her lips, I agreed and turned to face forward. “I do. Now hop on and then you don’t have to worry about tripping your way down the stairs and falling into my creepyclowndoll collection.”

She cackled, delighted by my elaboration on her joke, then jumped and wrapped her legs around my waist, and we descended into the basement. When we reached our destination, I lowered her to the ground.

“All right. Go ahead and take a look,” I said, nerves fizzing in my gut.

We’d moved the rest of her stuff into my room—ourroom—the weekend after the engagement. She’d already been sleeping in there every night anyway. After that, she brought over whatever she wanted to keep from her apartment, and we’d sold some of her furniture that hadn’t blended with the overall design in the house.

She had, however, insisted that we pick out a new couch together, because she couldn’t imagine continuing to freeze her “cute little ass” off every time she curled up with a book.

The basement had been a secret project. It had been pretty dull before, and though I’d considered building a home gym down here, I had a decent setup from before I’d finished the space, and had never felt motivated to move it. Maybe I would now that I’d finally gotten the walls painted and added finishing touches like toilet paper and soap to the bathroom down here.

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